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Grassy Narrows – 40 years Later

BACKGROUND ON GRASSY NARROWS

On April 6, 1970 the government of Ontario banned fishing on the Wabigoon River due to mercury contamination from a pulp mill in Dryden. Overnight unemployment in the area rose from 10% to 90%, a primary food staple was lost, and the devastating neurological health impacts of mercury poisoning set in. At the time the government said it would take months for the mercury to wash out of the river system. Yet forty years later the effects are still being revealed.

A newly translated Japanese study on the health of Grassy Narrows Asubpeeschoseewagong Anishinabek residents shows that while mercury levels are going down, the health impacts of mercury poisoning are substantially worse now than they were in the 1970′s. This has huge consequences for Grassy Narrows and the neighbouring communities. It also has important implications about the long- term cumulative health impacts of low level mercury exposure.

According to the Council of Canadians, private water companies have been aggressively pursuing new markets in Canadian First Nation communities. At the same time, the federal government is actively seeking new solutions for persistent water crises, like those faced in Grassy Narrows, in First Nation communities by seeking out the feasibility and desirability of public private partnerships. Over the years, the Federal funding for water infrastructure provided through the Ministry of Indian and Northern Affairs (INAC) has been inadequate to address urgent drinking water and wastewater treatment needs of First Nation communities. We already know that governments have a tendency to under-fund public services to allow for privatization to happen.

When privatisation of water occurs it is frequently accompanied by infrastructure neglect, cutbacks in jobs and a decline in a regulatory oversight – often resulting in a threat to water quality rather than offering a solution. First Nations communities throughout Turtle island have already felt the direct impact of crumbling infrastructure, equipment malfunctions, and a lack of adequately trained and certified water system operators – all of which result in inadequate water quality and ongoing boiling bans in place.

Unpacking the relationship between water privatisation and the quality of health is vital to understand the ongoing health issues confronting Aboriginal communities. As we are threatened with water privatization and commercialisation the health of women and the poor are at an increased risk. Elderly women living alone are among the poorest women in Canada, as are Aboriginal women and women with disabilities. Aboriginal women are amongst the poorest of all individuals in the country, with a poverty rate in 2000 of 36 percent, and are the most likely to raise children on their own (Statistics Canada, 2005) When a vital resource such as water, that gives us all life, is put up for sale or polluted the health and well-being of women and communities is directly impacted.

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Help defend public water, fight for water protections. Speak out and send a message to the Provincial government today!

Minimum standards not being met: MKO

OTTAWA — First Nations leaders from northern Manitoba are taking their water crisis to the United Nations.

Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak Grand Chief David Harper told a Senate committee hearing Tuesday the lack of running water in more than 1,000 homes in northern Manitoba is a violation of the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous People.

MKO plans to ask the UN to investigate the violations of rights imposed by the lack of water.

“How many more people in northern Manitoba First Nations must get sick with the flu or other diseases just because they can’t wash their hands before the government of Canada will take action?” Harper asked the senators at the committee.

Last fall, the Winnipeg Free Press exposed the Third World conditions in the Island Lake region of Manitoba, where most families have less water every day than people in refugee camps.

The United Nations recommends 50 litres of clean water are needed per person every day to meet minimum standards. In disaster zones, the UN recommends at least 15 litres of clean water per person per day.

Many people in the Island Lake region get by on 10 litres per day, usually lugged by family members in pails from local water pipes. Additional water comes in untreated from lakes and rivers that have tested positive for contaminants including E. coli.

The issue has been front and centre as the aboriginal peoples committee of the Senate considers bill S-11. The legislation seeks to regulate water quality on reserves.

Chiefs nationwide have said the bill puts the regulation cart before the water truck.

Few communities have the infrastructure needed to meet any regulations on water standards and chiefs, including Harper, say the government needs to help build the systems before they can be regulated.

“Bill S-11 will not deliver clean running water into 1,000 homes in northern Manitoba,” said Harper.

Conservative Sen. Patrick Brazeau, who introduced the bill in the senate for the government, said the bill is intended as a starting place.

“Would you agree, at least, it’s a step forward?” he asked.

Harper said only if the bill also included a requirement for the government to ensure the systems were in place to meet regulations.

Several Liberal senators have indicated plans to vote against the legislation, though the Conservatives likely have enough votes on their side to pass it on to the House of Commons.

Liberal Sen. Roméo Dallaire said he finds it disturbing most Canadians don’t even have to think about clean running water at their summer homes, let alone their primary residences.

“Cottage country in Canada has much better drinking water than you,” Dallaire said.

Harper is pushing for the federal government and Manitoba to join forces to build the water-treatment plants, water holding tanks and indoor plumbing fixtures needed to ensure the Island Lake residents have enough clean water to drink, cook and bathe.